Can I point my domain name to an Azure web site?

Question

In the current technical preview, Azure lets you create 10 ASP.NET websites. They are given domains such as http://yourappname.azurewebsites.net. Is there currently any way to point a domain name to this website? Or are there any plans to support this in the future?

Answer 1

Update 18-sep-2012: Windows Azure Web Sites tiers:

• Free: Allows you to test the Web Site Features
• Shared: Cheap hosting (with 5 GB/month free) that supports both CNAMEs, A-Records and naked domains.
• Reserved: Same as shared, but you get a dedicated VM

Read all about it in Scott Guthrie's post: Announcing: Great Improvements to Windows Azure Web Sites

Original Answer:

At the moment this is only possible for reserved instances (using a CNAME), this means it's not possible for the free sites you can create (which are shared):

You can only used custom domains in reserved mode. You can’t set a CNAME like you can in Web Roles because multiple sites share the same IP address. Switch to reserved mode and set your CNAME in the configuration and it should work.

http://blog.ntotten.com/2012/06/07/10-things-about-windows-azure-web-sites/

Microsoft confirmed that they will add support shared sites in the future:

https://twitter.com/scottgu/status/210972290719031298

Answer 2

Fast forward two years, it is still not possible to have CNAME directed to Azure free website. The reasons are commercial and not technical. MS says that it is not possible because multiple sites share a same IP. But don't know why I have this dedicated server at GoDaddy that has one IP but hosts 7 different domains :-) So it can't be a technical reason. Of course, if they start allowing it, nobody would want to subscribe to paid versions.